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Friday, December 5, 2014

Friday Round-Up: Coaching Carousel

Just a quick reminder
before we get started, the Rider Prophet
Awards will be handed out on Monday so you only have a few more hours to
get your vote in for the Fan’s Choice
Douche Bag of the Year.

After a week where everything
not related to the Grey Cup was kept quiet, the news came flowing fast a
furious this week. The bulk of the news centered around coaching and the Riders
are at the centre of a lot of it. Here’s what we know:

By all accounts
outside of WR Coach Jason Tucker and OL Coach Doug Malone, all other assistant
coaches are not expected to return next year (though we are still awaiting
official word from the Riders). That includes OC George Cortez (who has been
confirmed now), DC Richie Hall and ST/C Bob Dyce. I’m surprised at this move to
clean house, I’m under no illusion that our coaches were without issue but we
just won a Grey Cup and were 9-2 before our franchise QB went down. Seems to
me, more of our issues relate to scouting deficiencies at QB, WR and MLB
(something that even Taman admitted to) but that is a topic for another day.

Obviously I’m choked
about the Cortez move. Had anyone seen my face 2 years ago when I found out we
landed him it would have rivaled that of a kid on Christmas morning. I had an
overt man crush on him. Clearly he had a litany of issues this season but when
you look at his track record it’s tough to let someone of that calibre go. I
get the sense Cortez ain’t always the easiest guy to work with (find me an old
man that is) but this definitely a loss for the team. I’m not confident we will
be able to replace him with anyone close to his calibre. Remember that his
predecessor was Bob freakin’ Dyce. The rumoured list of potential replacements
includes Paul LaPolice (who I’m not confident we land), Jacques Chapdelaine
(who I’m not confident we want) and Khari Jones (who would be great as a QB
coach but did little to impress in his first year as OC in BC).

The Richie Hall move
doesn’t surprise me overall. But the timing is puzzling. I expected Chamblin to
axe Richie when he first took charge. They have very different defensive
philosophies and I expected Chamblin to opt for a DC who was more in line with
his world view. But they have now co-existed for 3 years and our defense over that
span has been a real strong point for the team. Not sure why make the move now? The "we are looking to see if we can find someone better" approach we are taking is one of the oddest things I've ever seen. Apparently Devone Claybrooks is at
the top of Chamblin’s wish list as a replacement.

The Bob Dyce move is
the one I care least about. He was a sub-par receivers coach, a sub-par OC,
looked good as ST/C last year but terrible this year (though to be fair the
bulk of his Canadian starters on specials teams got hurt which had to be a
factor). Word is Dyce is being considered for the Head Coach of the U of R
Rams.

In other coaching
news:

-The
candidate list for the vacant BC Head Coach position is said to include
LaPolice, Charlie Taffe, Jeff Garcia and Orlando Steinhauer. Reports also
suggests Buono’s preference would be for an offensive minded coach.

-Jason Maas
has been named the OC of the RedBlacks

-John
Hufnagel will remain HC for next season and Dave Dickenson will take over as HC
in 2016. Also word is Marc Mueller while remain on the coaching staff but move
to the offensive coaching side.

NFL Watch

Shawn Lemon – Has workouts scheduled with Seattle, Washington,
Denver and at least 9 other teams.

Brett Jones – At least 9 teams have expressed interest in
the League’s Top Lineman

Duron Carter – Has a workout with the Cleveland Browns and
interest from a number of other teams. Simply put if your hall of fame dad
can’t get you a shot down south after his performance up here, you should just
give up on the NFL dream forever.

Also, Buono announced
that they will not be making an offer to pending FA Kevin Glenn… which is a
bold strategy given Lulay’s bum shoulder and the total lack of experience in
Beck and Partridge. My only hope is that Glenn lands in either Edmonton or
Montreal so the dream of him hitting for the CFL cycle stays alive.

Winnipeg

In: OL Pat Neufeld (contract
extension)

If this is part of
Winnipeg’s plan to fix the dreadful O-line then Drew Willy better start
stocking up on pain killers now.